The Promise and the RealityWay back in 1947, as India became independent, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru set out a vision to shape the country’s economy and the development of a just and equitable society. Manufacturing was key to this vision, since it is crucial to generating employment and higher growth. More than seventy years later, manufacturing is far from competitive and contributes only 15 per cent of the GDP. As a result, removing the wide socio-economic disparities remains a distant dream. In Getting Competitive, R. C. Bhargava draws upon his unique experience of more than sixty years as a policymaker and industry leader to give practical suggestions. These include replacing socialistic industry-related policies with those that would promote competitive manufacturing, and substituting Western management culture with that of the East to create trust with citizens and partnership relations with industrialists, workers and the government. The bureaucracy must be enabled to facilitate and promote competitiveness. Above all, we need to create national acceptance that manufacturing competitiveness is our first priority. For policymakers and general readers alike, this book brings promise to what has become a disappointing scenario.

About the Author

R.C. Bhargava is the chairman of Maruti Suzuki. He joined Maruti Udyog Limited, as it was known then, in 1981 after twenty-five years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Managing director of Maruti from 1985, Bhargava was appointed chairman and managing director in 1990 and after retirement he was inducted as the non-executive chairman from December 2007. He is the author, with Seetha, of The Maruti Story: How A Public Sector Company Put India on Wheels (2010). In 2011, the Japanese emperor bestowed upon him the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2016. He lives in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, with his wife.